The Greatest Acts of Doom

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We salute the good Doctor with our picks for his ten greatest stories.

By Jesse Schedeen

Who's the greatest villain in the Marvel Universe? Our Top 100 Villains Countdown says Magneto, but Doctor Doom is certainly close behind. This dictator and supervillain has made a career out of tormenting the people of Latveria and Earth's heroes. No group has borne the brunt of his wrath over the years more than the Fantastic Four.

Doom's penchant villainy in 2010 isn't cooling, either. This month sees the debut of the Doomwar mini-series, where the Black Panther family joins with the FF, X-Men, and Deadpool to prevent Doom from looting Wakanda. In honor of this new Doom-centric storyline, we've put together a feature called The Greatest Acts of Doom. Here we list our favorite defining Doom stories from the early Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era all the way to the present. We summarize what made Doom stand out in these books and where you can find them in bookstores.

And as always, let us know your favorite Acts of Doom by posting in the comments section below.

When a villain first debuts, it's not necessary for readers to know their origin story. Usually the villain works better with an added aura of mysteriousness. But eventually fans need the straight scoop, and that's what Ed Brubaker's mini-series The Books of Doom delivered. Seemingly narrated by Doom himself, the series explores his life's history from his humble origins as a gypsy to his ill-fated time as an American student to his rise to power as Latveria's monarch.

In some ways the story helped to humanize Doom. Several issues passed before he covered his face in his inhuman mask. Brubaker showed readers more than ever before about Doom's love for Valeria and the inner turmoil that drove him to become a master scientist and sorcerer. Ultimately, the book only served to illustrate that Doom was the architect of his own destruction, exactly as it should be. Those wondering about the man underneath the mask would do well to look here.

Reprinted in: The Books of Doom TPB/Premiere HC

The Final Victory of Doctor Doom As seen in: Fantastic Four Annual #2

Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's long run on Fantastic Four is still heralded as one of the greatest creative runs in the history of comics. Doom was hardly the first or last character to be spawned from this pairing, but he certainly numbers among the greatest. It's hard to pick one classic Doom story from Lee and Kirby's 100+ issues, but the FF Annual #2 stands out particularly well.

The first half of this annual offered readers an early glimpse of Doom's origins. Though hardly as extensive or revealing as The Books of Doom would be four decades later, it nonetheless shed a little bit of light on a popular villain. The second half presented a story called "The Final Victory of Doctor Doom". After reminiscing with the time-traveler Rama-Tut, Doom returns home and hatches his latest scheme to destroy the FF. He nearly succeeds until Reed turns the tables on Doom in a very characteristic fashion. Doom can't seem to rid himself of his nemesis, but it's been fun to watch him try all these years.

Doom isn't the most powerful villain in the universe b a long shot. However, his will to succeed is so strong that he often manages to get the better of his opponents regardless. One of his favorite strategies when battling someone more powerful than himself is to steal their power. It's hard to argue with results like the ones Doom got in Secret Wars #12.

After being plagued by the all-powerful Beyonder, Doom did what any Eastern European armored tyrant would do and stole those powers for himself. Doom quickly went from being a noble figure fighting a losing battle to being an opportunistic jerk with too much power for his own good. Naturally, the Marvel heroes banded together to topple Doom, but he had fun while it lasted. Recently Marvel even explored the possibility of Doom retaining the Beyonder's powers in a What If? issue.

Reprinted in: Secret Wars TPB, Secret Wars HC

Brainwashing the World As seen in: Emperor Doom

Do you ever wonder what would happen if super-villains actually succeeded in overcoming their adversaries and ruling the world? As it turns out, Doom once managed to defeat the accursed Richards along with the rest of Earth's heroes. In Emperor Doom, Doom managed to gain control of the planet by brainwashing every man, woman, child, and superhero. Consider it a prequel to House of M – House of D.

Ultimately Doom's empire crashed in much the same way Magneto's did. But along the way, some very interesting philosophical conundrums were tossed about. Is a world devoid of war, hunger, and suffering preferable to our own, even if Doom is the one in charge? Emperor Doom proved this power-hungry villain really have it all, but he'll never be satisfied.

Short of Lee and Kirby, no creator enjoyed a longer and more influential run on Fantastic Four than John Byrne. It goes without saying that no small part of that work involved Doctor Doom. Byrne took a surprisingly even-handed approach to the villain, going so far as to suggest that Doom retained a noble heart and genuinely cared for his Latverian subjects. Those qualities were on display in "This Land is Mine", where the FF learned the hard way that Doom might not be the worst option available.

Earlier in Byrne's run, Doom lost his throne to one King Zorba, who had a little help from the FF. In this issue the FF battle Doom once more, only to have the villain show them firsthand the horrors inflicted on his people by the wretched Zorba. Reed is forced to acknowledge that there are worse things in the world than Doom and that his family may have made a mistake. For those that favor Doom as a proud, noble figure, stories like this are a testament to those traits.